Pumpkin Patch

I wanted to share with you a few pics from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch. We did it this year in record time! My husband didn't get home until 7:30 because he stopped to pick up wood to build cabinets for my craft room. Yeah! We got a very late start and they were closing as we were arriving. We didn't get to go through the inflatables or the hay maze. Bummer. We were just trying to fit too much in. It gets so busy this time of year. Over the weekend we had a volleyball tournament, playdates, a sleepover for my daughter and a Halloween party and an end of year soccer party for Nicholas. We just couldn't get the pumpkins this weekend. My husband does real elaborate carving with the kids. That will have to get done tomorrow night.

I have some fun projects I have been working on. I will be sharing them with you over the next couple of days.

Sparkly Birthday

This was another card we did in stamp club. It is a simple example of paper piecing. We stamped the gift on patterned paper and cut it out and mounted it on Whisper White cardstock. Pretty quick and easy.

The base of the card is Certainly Celery. The patterned paper is from the Petals and Paisley paper pack. The other layering colors are Tempting Turquoise and Old Olive. The photo corners are punched out in Taken with Teal. Wide Celery Grosgrain ribbon is tied around the middle strip and the sparkle is added with the 2-way glue pen and Dazzling Diamonds glitter.

Club Card

This is one of the cards we made in my monthly stamp club. It is using a technique from the Technique Junkies called Embossed Watercolor Crayons. The main image is from the Zoofari stamp set, the background uses the Polka Dot and Petals. The greeting is from the Hugs and Wishes greeting stamp set.

The base of the card is Blue Bayou, then I used a layer of Sahara Sand. The main image and the greeting are stamped on Sahara Sand as well. The middle piece is a Pomengranate piece of designer paper from the Holiday Harmony paper pack in the Holiday mini. Old Olive is used on the layering and the scallop circle punch. I used the flower punch to punch the pomegranate flowers on the side and wide Old Olive grosgrain around the middle.

Thanks for looking!

30 Scrappin' Good Cards!

I am having a class on Wednesday, Nov.7 and Saturday, Nov.10 based on the Simply Scrappin' kits. They aren't just for Scrappin'! In this class you will make 30 cards out of 1/2 Simply Scrappin' kit and a few other supplies. You will have your choice of the Winter Brights or the Secret Garden kit. The Winter Brights are for Holiday cards, and the Secret Garden is All Occasion. You can make your Christmas cards or make a batch of cards to give as a gift. Cost for the class is just $25. Sign up is no later than Wednesday, Oct.31. You can contact me at krhopperstad@juno.com for more information.

Pumpkin Patch

This is the scrapbook spread for my October Scrapbook club. We haven't been to the pumpkin patch yet this year so I dug up some photos from several years ago.

Stamps: Well Worn Alphabet
Ink: Chocolate Chip craft ink, Really Rust craft ink, Really rust dye based ink
Paper: Chocolate Chip, River Rock, Really Rust, Apple Cider Paper
Other: Small oval punch, word window punch, Wasabi double stitched ribbon, SU just journaling II CD fonts

I really don't like my handwriting. I have such messy writing. But the experts say to be sure to include some of your handwriting in your scrapbooks so your kids/grandkids can see it. So I did. :)

Halloween Stampo

Last night was our Halloween Stampo event. Some of my 1st level downline and I plan Stampo events
a couple of times a year. I was Minnie Mouse, Kristina was Jack Skeleton, Michelle was a green haired witch, Kathy was a Renaissance witch, and Kelly was just a cute Halloween Witch! We had our Halloween goodies spread out on the bar. My downline Kathy, made the cute cupcakes with the Halloween picks. We had candy coated popcorn(a fave), chocolate spiders, bat chips and salsa, M&M's and Cinnamon Tea punch. Yum! There were 23 of us playing. That meant we had to play with a ghost. Ooh creepy! We had some tricks and some treats along the way. Brittany won the drawing for those wearing costumes. Tami won the traveler prize. Half of the ladies won Stampin' Up! gift certificates and the other half got door prizes. After Stampo we did 3 fabulous make-n-takes. I only got a picture of Michelle's Genie bag. Isn't it fabulous? She is so very talented. The picture doesn't do it justice. Her attention to detail is amazing! It was another FUN night of Stampo! Thanks to all of you who came to play!!!

You Make Me Smile

Corie from Creations by Corie nominated me for the You Make Me Smile Award. You're so sweet Corie!

I need to nominate 5 ladies. Oh boy. There's so many of you out there who bring a smile to my face.

1) I'll start with Spazzgirl. She is just so sassy and funny. Whenever I bop over to her blog it's a guaranteed smile(or even a chuckle or two!)
2) Next I'll pick Terri from Terri's Stamping Spot. Terri is a stamping buddy from awhile back when we were part of a group of SCS ladies who got together to plan the first Minnesota SCS get together. Terri just had a baby and babies always make me smile so here's to the new mommy, Terri!
3) This next blogger is so fresh and fun and has an adorable family sure to make you smile! Emily from 3peas(in a pod) .
4) Jantink at Stamp, Paper, Scissors is a talented stamper and a hoot to boot!
5) Lisa at Shabbychick Junk is a truly unique individual. She's a fellow Minnesota gal and is fabulously talented.

Back from California

My family and I got back from vacation last night around midnight. We were one tired crew! We had so much fun on our vacation though. We took over 500 pictures! There were a lot of firsts in this vacation. It was my children's first time flying. Their first time to Disney, first time to California, first time seeing the ocean and so many other things. I will give you a few highlights:

Wednesday, Oct. 10: The first flight! My kids were so excited! They had so much fun flying. I got to see my dear friend Ellen who recently moved out to California. She took us all out for dinner at Red Robin when we finally made it in.

Thursday, Oct.11: Disney! We drove in which took forever. Our hotel was only about a mile away but the traffic getting in their is incredible. We took a shuttle ride from our rental car and
then entered Disney. What a sight! Since we went in October Disneyland was decked out in pumpkins! I am a Halloween nut(as many of you know by now) so this was right up my alley!
We had so much FUN! We went on Space Mountain(my personal fave), saw Honey I Shrunk the audience, Buzz Lightyear ride(so cool- you got to ride in cars and blast all these targets), Pirates of the Caribbean(this was closed when I was in Disneyworld so I was psyched to see this), The Jungle cruise, Toontown, saw the parade, and fit in just a little bit of shopping. What a BLAST!

Friday, Oct.12: The Ocean! We checked out of our hotel in Anaheim and started driving to San Diego for the weekend. We took the scenic route along the Pacific Coast highway. We stopped at Huntington Beach and played at the beach for a couple of hours. This was my kid's first trip to the Ocean. My teenage daughter was trying to be all nonchalant when we got there. Once she dipped her toes in the ocean she was a goner! Does she look bored to you?! It was a cooler day in the 60's so the ocean felt even colder than normal. After a couple of hours it was time to get back on the road. It was hard to tear my teenager away!

Saturday, Oct.13: We went to Seaworld this day. It started out as a rainy day but was supposed to blow over quickly. We resisted buying rain ponchos at first, but the rain didn't let up so we decked ourselves in lovely blue plastic. Finally, in the early afternoon, the sun came out. My kids enjoyed getting up close and personal with the marine animals. We got to touch dolphins(rubbery) and eels(slimy), and see seals, penguins, polar bears, beluga whales, killer whales, and many, many more. There were a couple of rides my family enjoyed too.

Sunday, Oct.14: It was the San Diego Zoo today. Sam, the youngest, was crabby to start off with. They took a family shot he refused to be in. We got him talked around to enjoying the day and then he got upset that he wasn't in the family photo. We went back and got that re-taken. This was the cheapest ticket prices of everything we went to see. The whole family got in for $117. That included upgrades for a zoo bus tour and monorail ride. We saw so many animals we had never seen before. We saw elephants(my fave!), panda bears, koala bears, camels, gorillas, monkeys, apes, meerkats, sunbears, and so much more! We went to an animal show and got to see a Cheetah. Nicholas, my 9 year old was thrilled! Cheetahs are his favorite! After the zoo we drove back to Anaheim.

Monday, Oct.15: Back to Disney! We started out at California Adventures. It started out with a little drizzle. We went right at the park opening. It was not busy at all at California Adventures. They had bigger rides than at Disneyland and we were able to walk right up and get on the rides. We rode some of them twice! They had bugland, backlot of Hollywood and a few other things. It's not near as big as Disneyland. I'm glad we got a hopper pass. It was fun to start out the day there and then go back to Disney. The first thing we did at Disney was go to Space Mountain again. We hit a few more rides and then my daughter and I headed out to downtown Disney for a couple of hours of shopping. My dh took the boys on more rides in Disneyland. We met up later and headed back to our hotel. Disney is just the best! They do everything so well. It was kind of sad to leave.

Tuesday, Oct.16: On today's agenda was Universal Hollywood. This was the most expensive tickets prices of everything we did. Even with a $10 discount on mine, my husband and my daughter's tickets it was still $275! Oh well, we were on vacation. Sam was getting sick of the hectic pace of events we were keeping and wanted to stay at the hotel. His outlook changed when he got to meet Spongebob! We also saw Shrek's 4d show, went on a behind the scenes tour of Universal Studios, went on River Adventure, Revenge of the Mummy Ride, met Spiderman, Shaggy and Scooby Doo, and saw a special effects show. At the special effects show Sam got plucked from the audience to play a part in their show. He got strapped up with a helmet with wires. He controlled a great big hairy robot. When he moved his right arm, the creature moved his right arm. He loved it! My two older kids would never volunteer to go on stage in front of everyone! We also saw a bunch of animals that have been in the movies, and had lots of photo ops around the park.

Wednesday, Oct.17: This was a long day of travel back home. We left our hotel around 8:45 am. We drove to LA to drop off our rental car. We took a shuttle from the rental car place to the airport. Our flight left LA at 12:20 pm and flew into Houston, TX. Our flight from Houston was supposed to leave about 5:30. Once we were all loaded on the plane, the pilot informed us we had to wait another 1 1/2 hours on the tarmac because there was lots of wind in Minneapolis and there were lots of planes headed there. They needed to stagger us a bit. Our flight finally took off around 7:15. Once we got close to Minneapolis we were stuck in a holding pattern until they could fit us in. Finally we landed about 11 pm. Once we got our luggage we rounded up a taxi to take us to my sister-in-laws house where our van was parked. We then finished our final leg of the journey home. We got home aroun midnight.

Today(Thursday) we are unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning and settling back in. It was a fun trip but it's good to be back home!

I hope to get some stamping done tonight and have something new to post tomorrow.

Take care.

Hello from California!

I am sitting in the hotel business center while I'm doing laundry. My family and I are having a blast in California! We have been to Disneyland, Huntington Beach, SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo. Tomorrow we head back to Disneyland/California Adventures and Tuesday we will be going to Universal Studios. Then we start the loooooooong travel day home. My husband was able to get 3 of our tickets free with frequent flyer miles. This also means we have to switch planes and have a layover so it will make for a long trip back to Minnesota.

I miss you all out in blogland. I don't have any pictures to share while I'm out of town cuz I'm just not that techie. We are taking a TON of pictures though and will share some of those with you later this week when I'm back.

A few projects to leave you with

I haven't had as much time as I would like to stamp lately. Too many other things going on. Here are a few things I have made lately. The top one is using a sketch from http://moralia.wordpress.com/

I have been wanting to use Pomengranate and Old Olive together so I did on this card. I inked up the greeting with Purely Pomengranate and then took a damp q-tip and erased the ink from part of it. I then inked up the parts with Old Olive marker. I gave it a good huff and stamped it.

Stamps: Glad Tidings, Snowflake Spot
Ink: Purely Pomengranate, Old Olive
Paper: Old Olive, Purely Pomengranate, Very Vanilla, Holiday Harmony designer paper from Holiday mini.

The second card is the Halloween card I did for my shoebox swap I was in Friday night. The stamped set is Autumn Apparitions and the paper is the Creepy Crawly Designer paper, Basic Black, Pumpkin Pie, and Whisper White cardstock.

My family and I are off to California tomorrow. We are so excited! My kids have never flown, or been to Disneyland or seen the Ocean. This will be a lot of firsts for them! I can't wait to see how they like it. I will have lots of pictures to post when I get back!!!

A card from Taylor!

I recently received this beautiful card from Taylor VanBruggen of Taylored Expressions. When she was in town for Scrapfest, a group of us got together to have dinner with Taylor and shower her with our hand-stamped goodies. It was great to meet Taylor! She is one talented paper crafter!

Running horses

I finally had a chance to do one of Beate's sketch challenges! I selected my paper first. The designer paper is from the Bohemia collection from My Minds' Eye. I based my colors off of this paper. The base is Chocolate Chip cardstock. I stamped the horses on the confetti white and framed it with the Not Quite Navy cardstock. The medallion is stamped in Not Quite Navy and punched out with 1 1/4" circle punch. Then I punched 1 3/8" circle punch in Not Quite Navy and the rest of the medallion with the circle scallop punch. This is popped up with Stampin' dimensionals. There is some hodgepodge hardware on the edge of the medallion. The dotted ribbon is from May Arts. The edges are frosted with white craft ink and the background is stamped with the white craft ink with an image that is in the Wanted stamp set as well.

Thanks for looking!

mini clipboards

I'm going to a shoebox swap that Tami Wood organized at Artsy Tartsy in Savage tonight. I made all of the gals who will be there these little mini clipboards. They started out as the laminate countertop samples you can pick up at Home Depot. I stamped little pieces in basic black on pumpkin pie for the top piece and attached the Creepy Crawly Designer paper for the bottom. Black gingham ribbon is tied around the middle. I just so happened to have these small orange binder clips to go at the top. I think I picked them up at Target at back to school time. I glued a magnet on the back. These can go on the refrigerator to hold a wallet sized photo or just be a cute magnet on the fridge! Too fun!

Holiday Glitz

Stampin' Up! wants to make your holiday card making easier. To that end, they are offering holiday card kits.

October 1 until supplies run out!

You can take advantage of this fantastic kit two different ways:

1. Purchase one of holiday stamp sets (below) and get the Holiday Glitz card kit (110286) for the special price of $24.95 each, or
2. Purchase the Holiday Glitz card kit (110286) for $28.95 each with no additional purchase required.

Each Holiday Glitz card kit makes 15 cards and includes:

• Precut card stock and Designer Series paper (15)
• Whisper White Envelopes (15)
• Rhinestone brads (15)
• Real Red zigzag ribbon (15)
• Full-color instruction sheet (1)

Item	Page #	Stamp Set	Price
109234	45	Snowfall	$23.95
106786	36	The Snowflake Spot	$20.95
109266	35	Big on Christmas	$18.95
110359	5*	Love & Joy	$23.95

Simply Sent kit special

Stampin' Up! has a couple of specials going on right now that I want to share with you. The first one is on the Simply Sent kits. These are on pages 12-14 in the Stampin' Up! catalogue. From October 4-October 8 these kits are 20 percent off!

These kits are a tremendous value! If you are beginner stamper I highly recommend these. The kits have everything you need to make 10-20 cards(depending on the card size). All of the

cardstock is pre-cut and scored, it comes with envelopes, glue, stamps, ink, and all of the embellishments you will need to make these cards including the instructions. These are great for experienced stampers too. They are very

convenient and quick. I have been stamping for over 10 years and I am really WOWed by these kits!!! Hurry! This special ends on Sunday!

Cupcake paper

This has been a busy week! I have wanted to get back here and post stuff but I haven't had a lot of stamping time. I have been prepping for a Stampin' Up! party, a class, and a shoebox swap I'm in. I did get a little time to play though. I met my mom at an outlet in Medford, MN on Monday to celebrate her birthday. I took her out to lunch and then we did a little shopping. We stopped at a scrapbook store there and they had the Heidi Grace cupcake paper that is all the rage. I used it as inspiration for this background paper I made myself. I used the swirl from Baroque Motifs and the cupcake from Big Bold Birthday. I stamped them in Bashful Blue, Rose Red, So Saffron, and Chocolate Chip craft ink. I was pretty pleased with the way it turned out. I'm not sure what I'm doing with it yet. Usually I slice up my background paper and use parts of it on a spread. I don't think I can do that with this paper though. Stay tuned. I'll post what I use it for in a future post.

Party Hostess Appreciation Event

I had my home party hostess appreciation event on Sunday. There were only 5 hostesses that were able to make it but we had fun! We played a couple of games, I handed out lots of prizes, we made 2 make-n-takes, and had some yummy treats. The first make-n-take was a 3 x3 card. I love this size for including with gift bag. We used the In the Spotlight hostess level 2 stamp set. We punched the large flower out with the scallop circle punch and then punched out holes in each petal with the 1/8 circle punch. We attached a clear button to the middle and used the slit punch to make scallops in the pomengranate cardstock. The Zoofari project was a CASE from my upline, Karen Titus. Purely Pomengranate was the cover and we used Purely Pomengranate double stitched ribbon for the handle. I LOVE that ribbon! The inside was an accordian fold out. I will be posting measurements and scoring lines later.

I sure enjoyed spoiling my hostesses this weekend. If you are a party hostess this Stampin' Up! year(July 2007-June 2008) you will get to come to next years' event. You wont want to miss it!!!

Marsha, you are my customer blog candy winner!

Congratulations to my customer, Marsha Johnson, who won my customer blog candy! I used random.org to select a winner and #2 was picked. Since you were the second one to leave me a comment you are the winner!!! Congratulations! I will get this out in the mail to you this week.

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

2

Timestamp: 2007-10-01 15:58:13 UTC